50 Shades of Consent

At lunch, the conversation quickly switched to the famous movie from the no-less famous book 50 shades of Grey.

We’re a very open-minded group though not enough to share our sexual practices. Of course, the jokes started immediately. When our Deliverability Director starts to compare how ‘consent’ is important in Christian and Anastasia’s relationship, like it is in any permission marketing activitye, we burst out laughing. He has a delightful sense of humour, but it’s not that crazy.

In email marketing like in BDSM, the relationship is built on consent.

Consent is at the core of the BDSM relationship. It’s all made explicit in a signed contract. Without that consent, it’s not a relationship: it’s abuse. For your list, a completely different area I agree: consent is the core of your relationship with each person on it. The permission they gave you, provides you with the right to have contact with them. (Understand I’m strictly talking about subscriptions to your newsletter here!)

Even though you feel like Christian and you don’t want to bother with the contract, I would like to remind you that, in real life, subscribers will expect you play by the rules!